Archive for February, 2015

As suggested by Dr. Forensicane in a previous thread, lets talk about the Non-Roster Invitees (NRIs) for the Nats this coming spring, and for each lets talk about their chances for making the team, staying with the franchise, and depending on their roster status, their future plans with the team in general.

(post-posting update: if you havn’t seen it, check out this overview of the NRIs published on curlyw.natsblog.com. It is very comprehensive and organized its list similarly to mine).

Discussion: Lerud was a MLFA signing from Atlanta and seems likely to join recently acquired Dan Butler as the primary minor league catching depth for this team. Thanks to an options crunch, Jhonatan Solano has already been released (and signed naturally with Miami to join his brother) and Sandy Leon likely gets DFA’d at the end of spring training, meaning that the Nats AAA depth needs to be rebuilt. Meanwhile Keiboom and Severino represent some of the rising catcher talent in the system that may be in a position to really contribute once our two presumed MLB catchers (Ramos and Lobaton) have reached free agency. The fact is that teams need tons of catchers in spring training camp and it is not surprising to see non 40-man guys get the call to help out with bullpen sessions and then get cut loose once the active camp has been thinned.

Odds of any of these NRIs making the 25-man roster: none for any of these players, even with an injury. Lerud likely sticks around as AAA depth, and Keiboom/Severino have yet to reach rule-5 eligibility.

Future plans: Lerud to AAA and probably out of the org after this season, and the two prospects moving on up the chain (Severino likely in AA and Kieboom in high-A).

Left Handed Relievers: Matthew Purke

Discussion:I am no longer considering Purke a starter; I think his best shot at making it is if he converts to relief. I’d be ecstatic if he regained his mojo as a starter but i’ve lost confidence as such. That being said; we’re all well enough familiar with Mr. Purke by now: for a couple of days in November I thought we had cut him loose completely, ending a rather expensive Nationals experience. But he re-signed as a MLFA with the team (likely in a pre-arranged deal) and then took the invite to spring training. I’m guessing the senior team officials want to get a look at him, see how he fares as a match up reliever, see if his stuff holds up in short stints, etc. By having Purke in spring training, the senior decision makers can watch multiple bullpen sessions, get a sense of his makeup and drive, and make a decision on his future (see next).

(tangent: fun fact here; did you know that Purke was born in the same town (Nacogdoches, TX) as USMNT striker Clint Dempsey?)

Odds of making the 25-man roster: none. The team didn’t go to all this trouble to get Purke *off* the 40-man roster just to put him back on; there’s other lefty alternatives that will get the first crack at the majors if our standing lefties (Thornton and Blevins) falter. Namely Xavier Cedeno and Matt Grace. Even after the season begins, I could see the team experimenting with Sammy Solis or Felipe Rivero as a reliever in the majors before looking at Purke. Which leads us to Purke’s future plans…

Future plans: Getting Purke back on a non-40-man deal gives Purke a stay of execution. I think the team sees how he does this year and then considers whether to add him back to the 40-man as a protectionary move prior to next off-season. But he can’t be putting up 8+ ERAs in AA. He needs to get guys out or he’s done.

Right Handed Starters: Bruce Billings, Mitch Lively, Scott McGregor

Discussion: Both Lively and McGregor were signed midway through 2014 after getting dropped by their respective AAA clubs (affiliates of San Francisco and St. Louis respectively), and then each served as essentially an innings eating starter for Syracuse or Harrisburg the rest of the way through. Thanks to a slew of last minute moves, both guys got AAA playoff starts in 2014 as well, neither pitching especially effectively as Syracuse was swept out of the playoffs. Both chose to re-sign in Washington and both will get spring training invites. Billings was signed from Los Angeles in November and was a starter for their AAA affiliate in 2014.

Odds of making the 25-man roster: none. Assuming there are no trades or injuries, the 6th-10th guys in line to get MLB starts likely goes Tanner Roark, Blake Treinen, Taylor Jordan, Taylor Hill and newly-added 40-man member (and long time Nats prospect) A.J. Cole. The Nats used just 8 starters in 2014, so the chances of all 10 of these guys even getting looks seems rather slim right now.

Future plans: You also have to think that the last 4 of these 5 guys will form the bulk of the Syracuse rotation to start 2015, leaving just one slot available. And if it were up to me, I’d have Felipe Rivero in that 5th slot. So its kind of hard to even see where these three guys fit in for 2015, unless they’re heading for long-man duty or are dropping down to AA. I havn’t done enough analysis to even guess what AA’s rotation may look like to see if that’s an option. So perhaps all three guys are playing for other teams’ scouts and for AAA rotations that give them more MLB opportunity.

Now to where some of these NRIs may actually have some chances to make this team…

Discussion: The team shed an awful lot of innings from last year’s core bullpen, none as important as the combined 132 1/3 innings from late-innings relievers Rafael Soriano and Tyler Clippard. The team made a pretty shrewd signing of former Toronto closer Casey Janssen (and not for a ton of money either …), who will slide into one of those departed slots. But the truth is that this team has a potential opening for a veteran 7th inning guy. Right now Aaron Barrett is set to step into that later-innings role; is he ready? Is he good enough?

The team has three former MLB relievers who signed on with the team with an eye towards reclamation; Bell, Meek and (to a lesser extent perhaps) Delcarmen. All three guys have had good success in MLB bullpens … and all three have fallen on hard times. Fornataro just got outrighted to AAA; he’s not immediately coming back on even if he fares well in spring; I’m guessing he’s on a season-long audition.

Which brings us to Mr. Martin. Forensicane’s best friend. His 2014 numbers speak for themselves. He has such an odd and unique career trajectory that perhaps the ST invite is solely so the MLB staff can see what the heck he’s got. I hope we can get a glimpse of him during televised ST games to see what he’s got.

Odds of making the 25-man roster: Long. Despite the weakened bullpen, the Nats still have a strong group making cases to head north come March 31st. And we know that Blake Treinen can be effective out of the pen, meaning that if we get an injury to any of the presumed 7 leaders in the clubhouse for our bullpen (for my money: Storen, Janssen, Barrett, Stammen, Blevins, Thornton and Roark), Treinen probably is the first to get called into duty.

Where these guys have a shot is this: there’s almost no reliever depth on this team. Outside of the 7 guys likely making the bullpen right now you have just three other relievers on the 40-man: Xavier Cedeno (out of options and likely DFA’d on 3/31/15 unless an injury befells Blevins and/or Thornton), Erik Davis (coming off a lost year to surgery … is he even ready to start throwing again?) and newly-added Matt Grace. I suppose if Davis proves he’s past his TJ surgery he’d be in line for a call-up if needed, but i’d put my money on either Bell or Martin getting a shot in case of injury.

Future plans: I’d guess that the likes of Bell and Meek have opt-outs if they don’t make the team. Delcarmen stayed put after his opt-out expired last year and signed on again for 2015; he’s likely AAA depth all year. Fornataro (as discussed above) is in the AAA pen looking to re-gain value, and Martin is certainly guaranteed a chance to repeat his AAA 2014 performance (not that he has much left to prove…).

Middle Infielders: Emmanuel Burriss, Cutter Dykstra, Dan Uggla

Discussion:The team traded away a significant asset to bolster its middle infield presence, but an injury to one of the Nats three presumed 25-man roster middle infielders (Desmond, Escobar or Espinosa) could mean an opening for one of these guys. Burriss holds an interesting local tie; he went to Wilson HS in the district, not exactly known for generating significant baseball talent. He has never really hit at the major league level and toiled all last season for Syracuse. Dykstra is seemingly more well known for who his father is (Lenny) and/or who his fiancee is (Meadow), but he has quietly hit his way up our system. You can argue that he’s been too old for every level he’s played at for us, but he’s hit .275 or better three successive years.

Which brings us to Mr. Uggla. He hit 30+ homers for 5 successive seasons, then got hit in the head by a pitch and suffered what we now know to be “oculomoter dysfunction.” I certainly remember his presence in the Marlin’s lineup for years; can he regain his stroke and have an impact? Problem is that he’s 35 and hasn’t hit at a productive level for nearly 5 years. And his skill set doesn’t exactly age well. I’m guessing this might be just one last shot in the sun for him.

Odds of making the 25-man roster: very little. Every team needs a backup short stop, and the team clearly already has one. Uggla isn’t going to supplant Escobar.

Future plans: I’m guessing Uggla has an opt-out. Burriss likely is AAA depth and is fine with it. Dykstra should be matriculating to Syracuse himself, where he can prove he’s worth a look later on.

Discussion: We know what we have in Skole; our 2012 minor league hitter of the year who earns his third straight NRI. He’s got a sweet swing but a lost season to injury and a less-than-impressive bounce back have him off the prospect radar. But he’s not really the interesting player out of this group.

I’ve put the player’s bat in parenthesis above for good reason; this team has a need for a bench bat. And there’s not much tying the team to the presumed 25th guy on the roster right now. And we *really* have a need for lefty power off the bench, especially now that Espinosa is only batting right handed. So a lefty with power has a pretty good chance at making this team. And I don’t think its a coincidence that *every* one of these guys is a lefty hitter. Ka’aihue just came back from Japan and has a ton of power in the minors that hasn’t translated to the majors. He’s limited to 1B. Robinson seems like almost the exact same player as Ka’aihue except with less MLB time. Stewart at least has some positional flexibility and has a 25 homer season in the majors (albeit in Colorado), but has struggled with injury the past few seasons, derailing his career. Lastly there’s Carp, another guy like Ka’aihue with a ton of minor league power demonstration that for the most part hasn’t shown up in the majors. Carp can play 1B or a corner outfield position, giving him a slight leg up on some of his competition here.

Odds of one of these guys making the 25-man roster: decent. You have to think our bench right now is Lobaton, Espinosa, Nate McLouth, Kevin Frandsen and … somebody. McLouth can play center … barely. And he used to have power, but showed the team almost nothing for its $10M investment last year. But the chances of the team cutting him before June 1st is zero, even if he goes o-for-the spring. Perhaps the first name to consider for the 25th man is Tyler Moore, but he’s a right handed hitter. And he’s out of options, and he’s had plenty of chances to earn his spot and has left the team wanting. I think we’d all rather have Michael Taylor playing every day instead of getting three ABs a week for the big league club. So I think there’s an opportunity here for one of these lefty power-hitting veterans to grab a spot previously held by the likes of Chad Tracy or Matt Stairs. In order I think the chances are best for Stewart, Carp, Ka’aihue and then Robinson..

Future plans: Like with the other vets, it wouldn’t surprise me to see all these veterans with opt-outs. As for Skole, I’d like to see him regain his batting eye; his BA and his OBP both took 40+ point nose dives in 2014. Of course, it is also worth noting that Skole is 110% blocked on this team right now; he can basically only play 1st or 3rd. Skole’s value to this team may be in his trade value, which means a good season in Syracuse could mean his ticket out of town for opportunity.

Conclusion: I think we could see one or two of these NRIs make the team, even without an injury. Remains to be seen.

Last year we did a quick analysis of all the Qualifying Offer-receiving free agents to see if the system was “working.” (note; from here out I’ll use the abbreviation of QO for Qualifying Offer).

Now that James Shields has signed, there remain no more free agents on the market who received a QO from their former team. Lets take a look at how the qualifying offers affected the markets for those players who got them this off-season.

Here’s a table of the 12 players who received QOs ahead of free-agency (I hope this table is readable once it publishes…)

Year

Player

Old Team

New Team

Draft Pick Forfeited

Signing Date

Subsequent contract (w/o options)

Money up/down per AAV

Q.O. Screw the player?

2014

Melky Cabrera

TOR

CWS

3-81

12/15/2014

3yr/$42M

-1.3

Not Really

2014

Nelson Cruz

BAL

SEA

1-21

12/1/2014

4yr/$58M

-0.8

No

2014

Michael Cuddyer

COL

NYM

1-15

11/11/2014

2yr/$21M

-4.8

Sort of

2014

Francisco Liriano

PIT

PIT

none

12/9/2014

3yr/$39M

-2.3

Sort of

2014

Russell Martin

PIT

TOR

1-18

11/18/2014

5yr/$82M

1.1

No

2014

Victor Martinez

DET

DET

none

11/14/2014

4yr/$68M

1.7

No

2014

Hanley Ramirez

LAD

BOS

2sup-69

11/25/2014

4yr/$88M

6.7

No

2014

David Robertson

NYY

CWS

2-45

12/9/2014

4yr/$46M

-3.8

Sort of

2014

Pablo Sandoval

SFG

BOS

2-44

11/25/2014

5yr/$95M

3.7

No

2014

Ervin Santana

ATL

MIN

2-43

12/11/2014

4yr/$55M

-1.55

Not Really

2014

Max Scherzer

DET

WAS

1-29

1/21/2015

7yr/$210M

14.7

no

2014

James Shields

KC

SD

1-13

2/9/2015

4yr/$75M

3.45

no

It should be noted that for the third consecutive year, not one player who received a QO accepted it despite its ever increasing value ($15.3M for 2015). Is this “reverse collusion” on the part of the players, not to play the QO game? For the third year, there were players about whom pundits scratched their heads as to why they chose not to take the offer. While not as obvious as in 2013 (when both Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales vastly over-stated the market for their services and were severely penalized as a result), the fact that especially Michael Cuddyer and David Robertson didn’t take the QO remained puzzling.

So, among the 12 players, who was hurt? In the end, nobody really.

Half the players got new contracts with AAVs above the QO figure, in some cases significantly above. So they’re not being “hurt” by the system. This list includes Russell Martin, Victor Martinez, Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, James Shields and of course our own Max Scherzer.

Another 3 players (Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz and Ervin Santana) signed longer term deals for slightly less than the AAV of $15.3M. I say these guys were “not really” hurt since they guaranteed themselves 3-4 years and in each case nearly or more than $50M of earnings. Each player rightly gambled and guaranteed themselves $50M instead of $15M.

The remaining three players each kind of have extenuating circumstances.

Michael Cuddyer (inexplicably) signed a 2yr/$21M deal with New York instead of taking a 1yr/$15.3M deal to stay in Colorado. There has to be more to this story; why wouldn’t his agent have advised him of taking the QO and then hoping to get a 1yr/$6M deal the following off-season?? Wouldn’t that have been the better play? Did he want to leave a losing team in Colorado? (If so, why the heck did he go to the Mets??) The Mets even more inexplicably gave up the 15th overall pick to get an 35-yr old corner outfielder who played just 49 games last year due to injuries and who has a combined 3 bWAR in the last two seasons. One can see the nature of the kind of player you can generally get in the mid-first round here. So while Cuddyer’s AAV is way below $15.3M, because he voluntarily signed the Mets contract he only screwed himself

Francisco Liriano declined the QO and then re-signed with the same team (Pittsburgh). He got a 3yr deal for $39M. Most pundits would agree that nobody would have given Liriano a $15M/yr longer term deal thanks to his age and injury history, so his taking lesser money AAV but for longer is a smart move for him. Perhaps the QO limited his market, forcing him to go back to Pittsburgh … or perhaps not.

David Robertson declined the QO but got a 4yr guaranteed deal for $46M … as a reliever. Which is fantastic, considering the volatility of the reliever position in general. So even though his AAV is far less than $15.3M, he made out big time with the amount of guaranteed money.

San Diego gives up the best draft pick (13th overall) to get Shields’ services for four years, but five teams altogether give up first round picks to sign players. Boston gives up its two second round picks to play Ramirez and Sandoval on the right side of their infield for the next four years. A number of very wealthy teams pick up supplemental first round picks (Dodgers, Yankees and Detroit), which (like all FA compensation) kind of seems to defeat the purpose of helping “poorer” teams off-set the loss of marquee players.

Lastly, the order (and pools) for the 2015 draft is now set. A better look is here, showing all the picks gained and lost. Houston has the 2nd, 5th and 37th overall picks, 12 picks in the top 10 rounds and has an astounding $17M of bonus money to acquire players. Washington has just $4.1M to sign its first 10 picks, meaning we’re likely looking at another set of college seniors drafted in rounds 6-10. More on the draft later on.

So, to answer the question of the day; are QOs working? This year they seemed to have worked; you can’t really argue that any player was negatively affected and teams that lost players got compensation picks. You can argue whether the right teams got these picks.

Fyi; the spreadsheet with all this analysis is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UEiZzwWarVP3PfCtZeYTVBqC49dmBut21O7UhB17htQ/edit?usp=sharing

For years I’ve collected links and lists of Nationals top 10 prospect lists into a text file, just growing it chronologically year after year. I noticed somewhat recently that in the Nats Big Board there are a few tabs with titles like “2013 Prospect Rankings” that had some but not all the rankings data that I’ve collected. Plus there’s no 2014 or 2015 tabs of this information.

So, I kind of became obsessed with translating all the information I had in text format to a spreadsheet. Today I’ve uploaded this spreadsheet for your viewing pleasure. I’ve created a “Link” along the right-hand side of this blog and also offer the below Google XLS:

I’ve only included what I deem to be “professional pundits” rankings. That is to say, I have not included my own, or the rankings of other Nats bloggers. I’ve also excluded auto-generated rankings (like at Scouting Book), rankings driven by projection systems (Zips, Pecota, etc), and rankings driven by or for Fantasy purposes.

The default XLS in Google is sorted by the Fangraphs recent ranking, then alphabetically by last name after that.

The color schemes on the spreadsheet: Orange means that the player hadn’t been acquired and/or drafted yet. Red means that player has either left the organization (by release, trade, etc) or has “graduated” and is no longer a candidate for these lists. Therefore a “white” or non-colored tab for recent lists should mean the player is still in our system, ranked or not. Corrections welcome.

In the 2nd “pundits” tab you can see pundit by pundit whose lists i’ve used and (in yellow highlighting) see some of the lists I wouldn’t mind finding and including. In particular, if anyone has the BA handbooks from previous years, I’d love a scan of the Nats top 30 pages.

One of the really interesting things I see in this data is the discrepant rankings from pundit to pundit by player; having all this data side by side lets you see (for example) that Keith Law really likes Joe Ross and John Sickels doesn’t rate Reynaldo Lopez nearly as highly as some of his counterparts.

The data is pretty solid to 2010; if anyone has older links i’ll take them and include them. I also can carve off future time to do the google research but for now I’ve devoted enough time to this little project

There are some weird discrepancies in the data as far as I can tell:

I have not done the “not yet signed” logic for all the IFA candidates, mostly because there’s some discrepancies in some of the IFA signing dates. To wit; Anderson Franco is listed on the big board as a 2014 IFA signing, but he appeared in BA Handbook’s 2014 rankings for the team. That BA Handbook is written mostly in December; how could Franco be ranked if he wasn’t even signed yet? Do all IFAs sign on the same July time-frame? Can a D.R. prospect sign the moment he turns 16, even if its outside the signing window?

Players like Aaron Barrett and Taylor Jordan ended up on pundit ranking lists after exhausting their eligibility; that’s what numbers in red blocks means.

mlb.com lists in particular are not published and set in stone; their system constantly adjusts the lists to account for player movement, so some of the older MLB list links may not match what’s in the xls.

The canonical history of Nats prospects ranked #1 on any list: Lucas Giolito, Brian Goodwin, Anthony Rendon, Bryce Harper (who never was NOT ranked #1 by any pundit), Stephen Strasburg (also never not ranked #1 in his brief stay on these lists in 2010), Jordan Zimmermann and lastly Chris Marrero, ranked #1 in the BA Nov 2007 ranking I somehow found.

Love it; another inbox to analyze. In the wake of the Scherzer signing, lets see what kind of questions MLB.com beat reporter Bill Ladson fielded this week.

As always, I answer as I write before reading Ladson’s answer, and edit questions for clarity as needed.

Q: How much better will the Nationals be now that right-hander Max Scherzer is on the roster?

A: Well, if you play the “WAR analysis” game, then Max Scherzer replaces Tanner Roark in the rotation for 2015. Scherzer posted a bWAR of 5.5 in 2014 while Roark posted a bWAR of 4.8. So on the face of it, assuming that both players provide identical value in 2015 as they did in 2014, perhaps Scherzer won’t immediately impact the team. This is the essence of those immediate-post signing blogs and columns that questioned why the Nats needed to make this acquisition.

However. I offer some counters.

Roark immediately becomes your spot-starter to cover for injury. Lets say that Gio Gonzalez (bWAR in 2014 of just 2.1) gets hurt and Roark covers for him; well that’s nearly a 3-WAR improvement. Certainly Roark is going to be better than whatever AAA cover we could promote to provide injury relief. The Nats only gave 12 13 starts to non-core rotation guys in 2014 but more than twice that number in 2013; the odds are that an injury is going to hit the rotation at some point.

Scherzer will be better in 2015 than he was in 2014. Why? He moves to the NL, gets to face pitchers instead of DHs, faces generally weaker lineups, plays in a weaker division and pitches in more parks that are pitcher friendly. You can make the argument that his K/9 is going to increase significantly (if he faces the pitcher 60-70 times in a season, he likely strikes them out at least half of that), and his ERA likely falls at least a half a point. That will boost his WAR for 2015.

Scherzer going twice in a seven game playoff series is going to be better than having any one else getting that second start. In fact, a 1-2-3 punch of Strasburg, Zimmermann and Scherzer is one heck of a daunting task for any opponent.

And there’s this: not to completely re-hash my post on the Scherzer signing, but i’ll note that this signing (to me) seems like a way to bridge the gap and guarantee an “Ace” in the rotation through the next two off-seasons of rotation transition (where the team likely loses Zimmermann, Fister and Strasburg). The Nats rotation looks an awful lot better after these three guys are gone if Scherzer is leading the line. So to me this isn’t a move about 2015 as much as it is about getting this team to 2017 and maintaining competitiveness.

Ladson said very little about answer the question, using his answer to immediately talk about the offense and the bench. Yeah we know there’s issues there. And we all remember how the middle of the order went like 1-for-the NLDS. Wasn’t the question.

Q: Why didn’t Espinosa work on hitting right-handed exclusively after the season ended? If Espinosa made that transition successfully, he would be the answer at second base.

A: A good question. Not the first time this topic has come up. We’ve discussed it to death here but the reasons seem to fall along the following:

Espinosa may be getting “advice” from his agent (Scott Boras) to put his own interests first.

Espinosa may be “stubborn” about maintaining his switch hitting, given that it is a differentiator in the marketplace for him.

Espinsoa may just be uneasy about suddenly facing right-handed curve balls from the right-hand side, probably having not faced such a situation in more than a decade (a fair point).

We all know about his splits lefty versus righty. We all know he has not chosen to try RH-only. I think its also safe to say that the organization has gone out of its way (Asdrubal Cabrera last season and now Yunel Escobar) to replace him in the starting lineup despite his defensive skills. It is what it is; we now have a backup infielder on the roster to cover both 2B and SS and who has some pop from the plate in a backup capacity (and the associated K-rate of course). Not the worst thing in the world to have. Ladson says … well he stated the obvious (Escobar is the starter) and then says that the “Nats hope Espinosa cuts down on his strike-outs.” Non-answer.

Q: How come Jeff Kobernus is not being considered for the starting second-base job? Why not have a young, cost-controlled guy play every day?

A: Because Kobernus hasn’t played 2B basically since college full-time since a half-season stint in Harrisburg in 2012. The team moved him to the OF and he’s mostly stayed there. Even if you thought he could play second effectively, he’s got a career minor league slash line of .285/.331/.363. He is what he is: a utility guy who can cover in case of a slew of injuries and makes for a good 9/1 pinch running/6th outfielder call-up, but that’s about it. I don’t think you can count on him to produce at the major league level day-in and day-out. Ladson says Kobernus has a chance of making the bench out of spring training this year, which I disagree with.

Q: Asdrubal Cabrera signed with the Rays for one-year, $7.5 million. Why couldn’t the Nats make that deal? Or something close to it?

A: Probably because Cabrera wanted to play short-stop, and the Nats have a short-stop. Besides, Escobar at $5M is a good deal. I mentioned at some point in the off-season that Cabrera’s offensive output with Washington wasn’t too much better than Espinosa’s frankly (Cabrera’s split line with Washington in 2014 was .229/.312/.389; Escobar brings more to the table. Ladson agrees, and says that the Nats weren’t willing to bring Cabrera back at his asking price based on what he showed last year.

A: Hmm. Good question. Perhaps because when Clippard was given the closer job in 2012, he really struggled with it as compared to his typical 8th inning performance. ERA in 2012 as closer: 3.72. Career ERA: 2.88. Besides, there was more in play for Clippard’s trade than just who was going to be the 2015 closer. Clippard’s got a ton of miles on his arm, Clippard was set to make nearly 8 figures as a reliever, and the Nats felt like they could afford to part ways with him to acquire a player who filled a need. Ladson notes what I noted, and said that Clippard’s pending free agency played into the decision. That’s a great point that I didn’t mention; Clippard wasn’t going to be offered a qualifying offer (likely worth $16M next off-season), so he’d depart to no compensation. With this trade, the Nats got some compensation for him.

Q: I know he’s had plenty of success as a general manager, but I’m surprised Mike Rizzo doesn’t feel any sense of urgency to try to sign Desmond or Jordan Zimmermann to an extension. What are your thoughts on this?

A: I think Mike Rizzo has been trying to extend these guys for more than two years. “Sense of urgency?” What else do you want to ask of the guy? He by all accounts has offered both guys 9-figure deals, and has been rebuffed. Do you think Ian Desmond is worth a 7yr/$100M deal? Do you think Zimmermann is worth a 6yr/$150M deal? Clearly to me the two players are valuing themselves higher than what the GM is valuing them, the GM has made what he thinks to be fair market value deals, and both guys have opted to test the market. Baseball is a business, both on the player side and the team side. Ladson thinks Rizzo will step up discussions once spring training happens. I don’t; I think that the ship has more or less sailed on extending these guys at this point. Now, will the team move Zimmermann? I think we may see offers once James Shields signs…. if there’s teams out there that want to improve but miss out on Shields, they may come calling to the Nats with deals we cannot turn down. We’ll see. Overall thougth I’m doubtful any trades occur at this point. My prediction: the juggernaut rotation goes into 2015 in-tact.

Believe it or not, its time to start thinking about College Baseball again. Most teams’ schedules start on the 2/13/15 weekend and all the major outlets covering the sport have released pre-season rankings lists.

Vanderbilt returns its entire weekend rotation, including two lock 1st round picks in Walker Buehler and Carson Fuller as well as another presumed 1st round pick in shortstop Dansby Swanson and is inarguably the best returning team in the land. UVA’s Joe McCarthy earned pre-season 2nd team honors but just went down with injury (back injury, out 12 weeks ugh), which seems like its going to really hurt that team.

Interesting development for 2015: d1baseball.com has apparently been acquired, or has undergone a mass change in direction. Gone is the 1990-esque interface; now they have graphics and professional writers associated with it (namely, Aaron Fitt, formerly of Baseball America, who left BA in Nov 2014 and is now focused entirely on the d1 site. Most importantly, the site is now a pay-for site. I visit this site constantly during the college and CWS seasons; we’ll see how much you can see w/o paying for this season.